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Biryani Anyone?

A few weeks ago as I was driving to our local library here in Las Vegas -- yes folks there are a few of us in Las Vegas
who actually frequent libraries -- I heard a radio program about the foods of Hyderabad India. My ears and stomach
perked up. Not only do I consider myself a "foodie" (my expanding waistline attests to that), but I'm heading
to Hyderabad India in eight days to cover Sun Tech Days.

The host of the radio program explained that Hyderabad is something of a food capital of India. Apparently
when their empire was waning, the Mughals (did you know that Mughal is the Persian word for Mongol?) fled south from their
capital of Delhi to Hyderabad, and much to my delight brought their Northern Indian style of cooking with them. Apparently
Hyderabad offers a unique mix of Northern and Southern Indian cooking, with Biryani a most notable example.

Wikipedia describes Hyderabad Biryani as:

a traditional celebration meal made using goat meat and rice and is the staple of a die-hard Hyderabadi.

The Wikipedia entry also includes this picture:

I'm usually hesitant to eat something that's described in any sentence that includes the word die, and frankly,
the photo doesn't make Biryani look all that appetizing. It sort of looks like the leftover Rice-A-Roni dish that's been
sitting in my refrigerator for the last week. But I will try Biryani. In fact I'm looking forward to all the
food delights of Hyderabad.

Of course this trip is not all about the food. It's really about the Tech Days event. I've covered two Tech Days events
so far, one in Milan Italy last September and the other in
Frankfurt Germany last December.
I enjoyed both events, learned a lot, and met a lot of interesting people. However, I've been told that the Sun Tech Days
event in Hyderabad might very well outshine the others. It's huge -- I've heard numbers like 15,000 or more attendees -- and
it's very high energy. So I'm getting myself charged up and soon will be on my way to Hyderabad.

Here is the agenda for the event. I plan to cover
most of the keynotes. I also plan to focus on technical sessions covering JavaFX. And I intend to spend a lot
of the Community Day in the University track. As I've done at previous Tech Day events I'm going to do some video
interviews and maybe an audio podcast or two. So stay tuned, or better yet, let's meet in Hyderabad at Sun Tech Days.
We can learn about some of Sun's terrific technologies and tools, hear from Sun evangelists and other Sun insiders who are
close to the action, exchange ideas and experiences, and perhaps share a bowl of Biryani.

You'll get a lot of variety : chicken, mutton, fish, telugu, irani. No place can match traditional home made biryani though. Be sure to try Hyderabad House , its the closest but might be slightly spicy so ask them for biryani with lesser spice. You better have a good stomach if you want to go on a gastro tour of the city. You can spend days just eating here. I should know, I live in Hyderabad :D